One set of rules exists for the powerful; the opposite set for the others. Handouts are perfectly okay if they’re for corporate America but not for the needy. Our government provides cash, tax concessions, loan guarantees, pays above-market rates, and buys stock at above-market levels to corporations to keep them profitable and competitive. It’s lying to say that we can’t afford to provide for the poor but somehow, there’s money to go around for others. Banks that were too big to fail received billions of taxpayer dollars as did the failing automotive industry. They gave “bailouts” to the rich; the needy poor get “handouts”
Laws were enacted after the Great Depression to protect farmers from falling prices. Times have changed but they’re still getting them. . A Farm Bill, updated every five years, sets the amount paid. In 2019, that amount represented a fifth of all farm income. Taxpayers subsidize the sugar industry to the tune of 63.5% of their yearly revenue. This boondogle provides the average fam household an income that is 42% higher than the average US household with 70% going to only 10% of farms. . This practice perpetuated by representatives from agricultural states is a prime example of crony capitalism. Between 1995 and 2010, farm subsidies averaged $52 billion a year, most going to a very small number of very large and profitable corporate farms.
We even provide subsidies to non-farmers and hobby farmers, like Scottie Pippin, Jon Bon Jovie and Bruce Springsteen. Billionaire Ted Turner received more than $200,000 in one year for his farming hobby.
Taxpayers also subsidize the oil industry. We gifted them between $10 and $40 billion each year in subsidies when their profits were at their highest.
Berne Sanders recently asked, ““ should American taxpayers provide the microchip industry with a blank check of over $76bn at a time when semiconductor companies are making tens of billions of dollars in profits and paying their executives exorbitant compensation packages?” He was referring to the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act. That act of generosity lacks safeguards that would prevent companies from using the taxpayer money to buy back their own stock, create offshore U.S. jobs, or fight unionization efforts.
It would appear that socialism is okay only if it benefits wealthy corporations. It’s an evil if it benefits the working man.